I’ve been using SUF for about 10 weeks now and have absolutely loved it. Before getting a smart trainer and coming to SUF I used a Nordictrack bike. While I definitely prefer SUF, one video/workout series that was outstanding on Nordictrack was a 4 or 5 part video series from the Tour of Utah. It’s basically just a video from one of the cyclists in the race but has a professional cyclist narrating the entire thing, describing what is happening and why. And I don’t mean like what you might hear from a broadcast covering an event, I mean a full description describing the race for somebody who knows nothing about bike racing. What’s a peloton? Why are the cyclists in a diagonal formation across the entire road (A: forming an echelon because of crosswind), etc. The workouts out are about an hour long each at Endurance zone. It’d be like taking the Norway, turning it into an “inspirational” video at endurance zone, and just a full narration of what’s happening instead of the coach chiming in from time to time.
So my request is for a video or 2 to really get into the basics of what bike racing is and how it works. Even simple stuff like I mentioned above, like what’s a peloton? I know now, but I didn’t even a few months ago. In “Norway” the coach is happy that the cyclist had a Top 10 GC finish. What is that? In a bike race there can only be one winner, but the coach mentions a teammate. There are teams? Who from the team gets to win? What’s an attack? What are the different category of cyclists? How do the different categories of cyclist work within the team dynamic? What’s a stage in a tour race? Why did the cyclist in the Norway video have to finish 20 seconds ahead of the peloton to be the overall winner?
My least favorite video so far has been “The Wolfpack Insider: Running with the Wolves” I had no idea what was going on, who any of the racers were, etc. It seems reading through the forums that many people share my sentiment, except by those that have an intimate knowledge of bike racing. And those people seemed to love it. So a video or 2 on the extreme opposite end of that would be very enjoyable I think.
This is a great idea. While we’re at it, can someone please explain the deal with the old man who dresses up like a devil on those Tour de France videos?
That sounds like a great idea. I think the choice of host narrating this kind of video is really important.
My vote would be for former pro David Millar who commentates during ITV4’s coverage of ASO races ( Tour de France, Paris-Nice etc) he makes the guys on eurosport sound like amateurs. The only person who would come close would be Cosmo Catalano whose excellent How The Race Was Won Series can be found on YouTube.
I think this is a great idea. Would also be cool to have something like an intro racing video for us newbies - crit race, gravel race, mtb race, cyclocross, road race. Especially if you could tie the workouts into why you’re doing them and how they’d benefit you in the race. I remember doing my first crit and just being completely destroyed and in a stage of pure chaos. While certainly a SUF video couldnt have fixed that, would have been fun to have something to maybe be better prepared / a better idea of what my strategy should have been. I’m sure it takes a lot of resources to make new videos but would enjoy 1 like this.
I don’t even think we need a special presenter. Just some good music and some text explaining what’s going on, some advice/tips, etc.
“Your first crit” could have some cat 5 race footage and be a good racing/mashup workout with high AC and MAP demands. Lots of opportunity for good humor it that one too
Wouldn’t it be nice to have little freeze frame and some explanatory text? “This is Didi the Devil. A beloved figure in European cycling, he was a fixture at major races through the Nineties and Aughts. Fun fact: a prolific inventor, he holds several Guinness World Records.”
See? Now I have a little context. In the future, I’ll see him in a video and think, “Hey, there’s Didi. I like him.”
